Intermediary service for collection of opt-in contact information

ABSTRACT

A user can visit a website hosted by a web server, sign up with the website, and during signup the user can provide demographic information. That demographic information or a portion thereof can be provided to a promoter server which determines whether that demographic information matches criteria established by third party entities seeking to obtain acceptance of offers from users matching the established criteria. If matching, the promoter server provides an opportunity for the user to accept the matching offer(s). Responsive to receiving an indication of acceptance, the promoter server provides a form to collect information from the user. The information provided by the user in the form can be verified by the promoter server and ultimately provided to the third-party entity responsible for that offer. The promoter server can determine whether the user has already accepted a matching offer and exclude an already accepted offer from being presented again.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/773,384, now U.S. Pat. No. ______, filed on May 4, 2010, andentitled, “METHOD FOR OPTING INTO ON-LINE PROMOTIONS”, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/761,987, filed onJan. 21, 2004, entitled “METHOD FOR OPTING INTO ON-LINE PROMOTIONS”, nowabandoned; all applications identified above are incorporated byreference in their entirety herein for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present invention relates to on-line advertising and, morespecifically, to targeted on-line promotions offered through a computernetwork.

2. Related Art

As technology advances and computers become a staple item in everyhousehold, the volume of the e-commerce increases significantly. Moremerchants are moving their businesses to Internet based e-commerce.Consequently, the competition for consumers' attention has become fierceon the Internet and consumers are flooded with advertisements andnot-so-welcome pop-up windows that have nothing but advertisements.

The return of these advertisements is generally low, because it isdifficult for a merchant to direct an ad to a specific group ofconsumers. Often the ad is displayed to all consumers who visit aparticular website, and these consumers may or may not fit thedemographic group in which the merchant is interested. A similarsituation happens with an opt-in window with a list of products, where aconsumer can select a product about which he would like to receive moreinformation. Generally, an opt-in window with a list of similar productsare shown to every consumer who visits a website, whether or not theconsumer belongs to a group to which the merchant of a product istargeting.

Besides the advertisements having a low return, merchants are charged ata flat fee that may be dependent on the popularity of a particularwebsite. The fee does not reflect the quality of user data the websitecollects.

Therefore, there is a need for an option in the advertising system thattargets consumers selectively and that charges advertisers based on ameasure of success.

SUMMARY

The invention is a system and method that present a customized opt-inwindow, with selected ads, to a user. In one aspect, an ad promoterreceives target information from an advertiser setting forth a set ofcriteria used to select a user from a plurality of users to receiveselected on-line promotions. A web host, under contract with the adpromoter, displays a web page to the plurality of users, and the webpage has a plurality of fields for collecting user information. Afterthe users enter user information, the ad promoter receives the userinformation from each of the plurality of the users and compares theuser information from each of the plurality of the users to the set ofcriteria set forth by the advertiser. For each of the plurality of theusers whose user information matches the set of criteria, the adpromoter displayer an on-line promotion from the advertiser in an opt-inwindow.

Before comparing the user information to the set of criteria from theadvertiser, the ad promoter ensures that the user information is validby checking it against a plurality of sources. If the user informationis not valid, the ad promoter asks the user to re-enter the information.The ad promoter will forward the user information that has beenvalidated to the advertiser if the user has opted to receive additionalinformation from the advertiser.

In another aspect, the invention is a method for billing an advertiserfor on-line promotions. A web page is displayed to a user. The web pagehas a plurality of fields for collecting user information. The userinformation is received from the user. An on-line promotion from anadvertiser based on the user information is selected. The selectedon-line promotion is displayed to the user. The advertiser is billed inan amount based on at least one objective factor indicative of a successlevel of the on-line promotion.

In yet another aspect, the invention is a method for billing anadvertiser for on-line promotions. A web page to a plurality of users,and the web has a plurality of fields for collecting user information.The user information is received from each of the plurality of users andcompared to a set of criteria defined by an advertiser. For each of theplurality of users whose user information matches the set of criteriadefined by the advertiser, an on-line promotion from the advertiser isdisplayed. Besides displaying the, the user information is provided tothe advertiser and the advertiser is billed based on at least oneobjective factor indicative of a success level of the on-line promotion.

In yet another aspect, the invention is a method for presentingcustomized on-line promotions in an opt-in window. A target informationis received from an advertiser setting forth a set of criteria used toselect a user from a plurality of users to receive a selected on-linepromotion. A web page is displayed to the plurality of users, whereinthe web page has a plurality of fields for collecting user information.The user information is received from each of the plurality of users andcompared to the set of criteria. For each of the plurality of userswhose user information matches the set of criteria, an on-line promotionfrom the advertiser is displayed in an opt-in window, and the userinformation is provided to the advertiser. The advertiser is billed foran amount based on the type of user information provided to theadvertiser and at least one objective factor indicative of a successlevel of the on-line promotion.

In yet another aspect, the invention is system for presenting acustomized opt-in window to a user. The system has a server connected toa global computer network, and the server includes a network interfacein communication with the global computer network. The server also has acontroller capable of communicating with the user on the global computernetwork, a user data validation unit capable of validation theinformation received from the user including information indicating thatthe use has opted into at least one on-line promotion, an electronicmail handler capable of sending an confirmation e-mail to a user who hasopted in to at least one on-line promotion, a pricing calculator capableof generating pricing information to advertisers whose on-linepromotions have been selected by at least one user, and a data storageunit capable of storing the set of advertiser criteria. The controlleralso selects on-line promotions, according to a set of advertisercriteria, for display in the customized opt-in window communicated tothe user. The pricing calculator is capable of generating the pricinginformation according to at least one objective factor indicative of asuccess level of the on-line promotions.

In yet another aspect, the invention is a computer-readable medium onwhich is stored a computer program for presenting a customized opt-inwindow. The computer program includes instructions which, when executedby a computer, perform the steps of receiving target information from anadvertiser, displaying a web page to the plurality of users, receivinguser information from each of the plurality of the users, and comparingthe user information from each of the plurality of the users to the setof criteria. For each of the plurality of the users whose userinformation matches the set of criteria, the computer program displaysan on-line promotion from the advertiser in an opt-in window. The webpage has a plurality of fields for collecting user information. Thetarget information sets forth a set of criteria used to select a userfrom a plurality of users to receive a selected on-line promotion.

Other advantages and features of the present invention will becomeapparent after review of the hereinafter set forth Brief Description ofthe Drawings, Detailed Description of the Invention, and the Claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a schematic drawing of an information delivery systemaccording to the invention.

FIG. 1B is a schematic drawing of an architecture of a server accordingto the invention.

FIG. 2 is a collection of user information according to one embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 3 is a set of advertiser criteria.

FIG. 4 is an opt-in window according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for a user process.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart for a server process.

FIG. 7 depicts a plurality of promotional records.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart for a server process with a data roll up feature.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart for a server process with a privacy feature.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this description, the terms “advertiser” and “merchants” are usedinterchangeably, the terms “user” and “consumer” are usedinterchangeably, and “Global Computer network” includes the Internet.Like numerals refer to like elements throughout the several views. Thearticles “a” and “the” includes plural references, unless otherwisespecified in the description. Although elements of the invention may bedescribed or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unlesslimitation to the singular is explicitly stated. “Ad” includesadvertisement.

The invention provides a way for an ad promoter to provide on-linepromotions to selected users through a web host, wherein the users areselected through criteria defined by advertisers whose products arelisted in the on-line promotions. Though described as independententities, the ad promoter and the web host may be a single entityexercising roles herein described for the ad promoter and web host. Theon-line promotions include on-line offers of products or services,on-line advertisements, and any other type of promotional ad campaignconducted through a network. The web host collects information from theusers who visit a website. The information collected is forwarded to anad promoter who validates the information and compares it with thecriteria defined by the advertisers. If the information from a usermatches the criteria defined by an advertiser, the ad promoter selectsthe on-line promotion from the advertiser to be shown to the user in anopt-in window. If the user opts into with the promotion, the ad promotercollects the user data and sends a confirmation e-mail on behalf of theadvertiser to the user. The ad promoter bills the advertiser based onthe success rate of the on-line promotions. The ad promoter may alsobill the advertiser based on the type of data requested by theadvertiser.

FIG. 1A illustrates an architecture of a system 100 that supports oneembodiment of the invention. A user uses a computing device with amonitor 102 to access the Internet 108 and to engage in e-commerce. Theuser visits a website hosted by a web server 110 by entering thewebsite's domain name or its Internet Protocol (IP) address. The webserver 110 belongs to a web host and communicates with a promoter server112 that belongs to an on-line ad promoter. Alternatively, the webserver 110 and the promoter server 112 may be combined into one singleserver. After the user enters the website address, the web server 110sends a web page to the user's computer, and the web page 104 isdisplayed on the user's monitor 102. The web page 104 may present avariety of information and services to the user, and the web page mayalso invite the user to register with the website host through aregistration button 106. For example, if the user visits a sportswebsite, the sports website may invite the user to register with thesports website so that the user can receive the latest sport scoresthrough electronic mail (e-mail) messages. If the user accepts theinvitation from the website, the website will display a registrationscreen to the user. The registration screen lists a plurality of datafields where the user can enter personal information.

After entering the information, the computing device sends theinformation to the web server 110, which forwards it to the promoterserver 112. FIG. 1B illustrates an architecture 150 of a promoter server112 supporting the present invention. The promoter server 112, in theform of software or dedicated hardware or a combination thereof,includes a controller 152, a network interface unit 154, a user datavalidation unit 156, an electronic mail handler 158, a pricingcalculator 160, and a data storage unit 162. The promoter server 112receives the user information from the web server 110 through thenetwork interface unit 154. The controller 152 receives the userinformation, and sends it to the user data validation unit 156 forvalidation and formatting. If the information is valid, the controller152 compares it with a set of criteria provided by a plurality ofadvertisers. If the information is not valid, the controller 152 mayrequest the user to re-enter the information. An example of an invaliduser information may user information with an incorrect ZIP code or anincomplete age field. After comparing the data with the set of criteria,the controller 152 selects from the data storage 162 on-line promotionsfrom those advertisers whose criteria are met by the user informationand then displays selected on-line promotions in an opt-in window to theuser. The opt-in window may have many different presentations. It may bea window covering the entire display area on a computer screen; it maycover a partial area on the computer screen. It may also be a banneracross top or bottom of the computer screen. The opt-in window may listseveral products with each product being associated with a correspondingcheck box for the user to indicate a desire for more information about aproduct.

If the user opts to receive additional information from the selectedadvertisers, the controller 152 forwards the user information to theselected advertisers and the electronic mail handler 158 sends aconfirmation e-mail to the user. The pricing calculator 160 calculates afee to be billed to the advertisers for the on-line promotions and forthe user information.

FIG. 2 is a list of typical user data 200 that may be collected from theuser. The list may be enlarged to include specific user information thatmay of interest to merchants. For example, a merchant may be interestedto learn the ethnic group to which the user belongs or the family incomethat the user has. Not all data are necessarily entered by the user. Forexample, the IP address might be extracted from a data packet sent fromthe user's computer after the user clicks a “SUBMIT” button.

After the user data 200 are collected, they are validated. Thevalidation may be performed by the promoter server 112. However,validation may also be performed by the web server 110 or a third partyservice provider's server. If the promoter server 112 is doing thevalidation, the promoter server 112 checks for typographical errors orinvalid data. For example, if a user enters a joke name, such as “GuessWho,” as his name, when the name is checked against a database ofillegal names it will be flagged as invalid. Besides checking forinvalid names, the promoter server 112 also checks for the validity ofe-mail addresses. The promoter server 112 may check the format of ane-mail address and the validity of the domain name of the e-mailaddress. For example, if the user provides lames@xyz.net” as his e-mailaddress, the promoter server 112 will detect that the e-mail is invalidfor not having “@” separator. After prompting the user to correct thee-mail entry, the server checks “xyz.net” against a database of domainnames. The validity of an e-mail domain, such as xyz.net, can also bechecked by “pinging” the destination domain. The promoter server 112 mayalso check the validity of an email address by sending a test e-mail tothe e-mail address. If the e-mail bounces back, the email address willbe marked as invalid. An e-mail bounces when it is undelivered andreturned to the sender with an error message.

The correctness of the user's address may also be checked against anaddress database, such as the address database of the U.S. postalservice. If the user provides a ZIP code of a city in Illinois and listsGeorgia as his state, the promoter server 112 will flag it as invalidaddress. The promoter server 112 may also validate the telephone numberprovided against a subscriber database from a telephone serviceprovider. The promoter server 112 may also cross-check the address withthe address information associated with the telephone number. If theaddress associated with the home telephone number is in New Jersey andthe home address provided is in New York, then the both the telephonenumber and the address are marked as invalid.

Certain missing address information may also be complemented orcorrected. For example, if the user failed to provide his city andstate, but provided the ZIP code, the promoter server could be able tocomplement the address information by retrieving the city and state namefrom an address database using the ZIP code. Similarly, if the userprovided his street address with exception of the ZIP code, the promoterserver may be able to find and fill in the ZIP code using the addressdatabase.

The date of birth is also checked. If the user enters the date in theformat of dd/mm/yyyy instead of mm/dd/yyyy and enters 25/02 the promoterserver 112 will detect “25” as an invalid month and request the user tore-enter the data. The promoter server 112 may also compute the user'sage and check it for validity. If the user enters 2000 as year of birth,the promoter server 112 will prompt the user to change it if it does notexpect or accept a three year old child as a user. Similarly, if theuser enters 1850 as the year of birth, the promoter server 112 will flagit as invalid year and request the user to re-enter the data.

In addition to validating the user data, the promoter server 112 alsoformats the user data to conform a pre-determined standard. For example,the user may enter “Georgia” as the state of residency, and the serverwill change it to “GA”; if the user has entered “new york” as the city,the server will change it to “New York.” The formatted user data canthen be easily used by other applications.

After validating the user data, the promoter server 112 compares theuser data with criteria from a plurality of advertisers. Each advertisermay either set up its own criteria through a web page interface orprovide its criteria to the ad promoter for entry into the ad promoter'ssystem. The web page for setting up advertiser criteria may include aplurality of fields, where each field refers to a user characteristic.If the user data matches the criteria from one or more advertisers, adsfrom these advertisers will be included in an opt-in window anddisplayed to the user. FIG. 3 is an example of a criteria table 300.There are a plurality of entries in the criteria table 300, one per eachadvertiser or one per each ad. Each advertiser may list one or more adsin the criteria table 300. Each ad has a set of criteria that must besatisfied before the ad is included in the opt-in window. For example,an advertiser may target Ad_1 302 to users who have a valid e-mailaddress, live in state of Georgia in the U.S., and who are male. Thesame advertiser may have another ad designed for a different age rangebut not limited to a specific state as shown in entry 306. In thisentry, the ad is addressed to males, between 25 and 35 years old, in theU.S. and who have a valid e-mail address. Another ad 304 from a regionaladvertiser focuses only on females between 20 and 30 years of age wholive in the region covered by ZIP code. Finally, an advertiser thatrelies more on direct telephone marketing might be more interested inpeople living in the state of Georgia who have a telephone number withthe area code of 404 as is reflected by Ad_3 308. The criteria table 300does not necessarily show all data collected from users and may beexpanded to cover other data.

FIG. 4 is depicts an opt-in window with a plurality of entries 402. Eachentry 402 has an ad 404, an opt-in box 406, and an ad description 408.The ad 404 may be a picture of a product, a logo, or other advertiseridentification mark. The ad description 408 provides a brief descriptionof a product or a promotion. If the user wants to receive additionalinformation about the product or promotion, he checks the opt-in box406. The user may check one or more opt-in boxes. After checking theappropriate opt-in boxes, the user clicks the submit button 410 tosubmit his choices.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for a user process 500. The user visits a websitehosted by a web server, step 502, and browses the information on thatwebsite. The website may entice the user to register himself with thewebsite through a free offer. If the user enjoys the website, or likesthe free offer, he may register with the website, step 504. A screenwith a list of input fields will be displayed to the user, where he canenter his personal data, step 506. The list of personal data depends onthe nature of personal data that the website wants to capture. Afterreceiving the data from the user, the web server sends the data to apromoter server for validation. The validation includes checking forspelling errors and comparing the data against different databases, step508. If there is any error or invalid data, the web server prompts theuser to enter the correct data, step 510.

After the data is validated, the promoter server formats the data to astandard format. Subsequently, the promoter server compares the userdata against a set of criteria from a plurality of advertisers. For thecriteria that the user data matches, the promoter server selects theproducts from these advertisers and assembles them in an opt-in window,step 512. The opt-in window, with a list of selected products, is thendisplayed to the user.

After viewing the opt-in window with a list of products, the user may beattracted to request further information on these products, and the usercan request more information by checking the opt-in box listed besidethe product. The opt-in window will go away after the user clicks the“Submit” button or closes the opt-in window manually. After the opt-inwindow is closed, the promoter server checks whether the user has optedto receive additional information on any product, step 514. For eachproduct selected by the user, the promoter server will send aconfirmation e-mail, step 516, to the user on behalf of the advertisersthanking the user for the request. In addition to sending a confirmatione-mail to the user, the promoter server will also send the userinformation and the user request to the advertiser.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart depicting a combined server process 600. The webserver displays a website for a merchant, which presents many differentoffers of products and services. When the user decides to receiveadditional information from the merchant, the user provides his personalinformation to the web server. The web server receives the user'spersonal data, step 602, and forwards the data to a promoter server forvalidation, step 604. In one emboidment, the user could have providedhis personal information to the web server on a prior occasion as partof a registering process with the web server, and only now the user'spersonal information is passed to the promoter server as part of apromotional campaign. The same user information may be passed to thepromoter server for different promotional campaigns.

After receiving the user personal data, the promoter server validates itby comparing it to a plurality of databases. If the personal data is notvalid, the web server prompts the user to re-enter his information, step608. Otherwise, the promoter server compares the user's data to criteriafrom a plurality of advertisers, step 610. For the advertisers whosecriteria fit the user's data, their products are selected, step 612, anddisplayed to the user in an opt-in window, step 614. After the userselects which products he would like to receive more information about,the promoter server receives the user's selection, step 616, and sends aconfirmation e-mail, step 618, to the user on behalf of the advertisers.Additionally, the promoter server sends the user's data to theadvertisers whose products the user has selected, step 620, and collectsstatistical information related to the user data, step 622. Although,the description above refers to a web server and a promoter server, thedescription is also applicable when the functions are hosted by onesingle server.

Besides sending the user data to the advertisers, the promoter servermay also save them in a promotional record. The promotional record maystore a list of users whose information have been sent to theadvertisers and their personal information. FIG. 7 illustrates aplurality of promotional records 800 in a database. For each promotionalrecord, the promoter server saves the advertiser's identification 810,the promotion's identification 814, and a record of recipients 814. Therecord of recipients includes the list of users to whom a promotion hasbeen shown and the personal data for these users. Each advertiser mayhave multiple entries, one for each promotion. For example, ifadvertiser 1 has conducted two promotional campaigns, then there will betwo entries, 802 and 804. These records are particularly useful when arepeat user does not provide his full personal information on hissubsequent visits.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart 900 for a data roll up feature. The data roll upfeature allows the promoter server to supplement a user informationprovided by the web server with data from the user's previous visit.This feature is particularly useful when a repeat user fails to provideall his personal information. When the promoter server receives anincomplete user information from the web server, the promoter serverchecks whether the user is a repeat user, step 902. The promoter servermay be able to check whether the user is a repeat user by using theinformation received from the web server. For example, if the user hasprovided his e-mail address, the promoter server may check whether suche-mail address is in one of the promotion records for in the database.The promoter server may also identify the user by his telephone numberor his name. If the user is a repeat user, the promoter server retrievesthe missing information from the record of his prior visit, step 904. Ifthe user has visited more than once before, the promoter server may beable to compose the missing data from several records related to hisprior visits. The information retrieved from the past visits is used tofill in the record of his current visit, step 906. For example, if theuser failed to provide his sex and his age, the promoter server may beable to identify the user through his e-mail and retrieve his sex andage from records of his prior visits.

After filling in the missing information, the promoter server comparesthe user information with advertiser criteria, step 908. If the userinformation matches one criterion from one advertiser, step 910, thepromoter server selects and includes products from that advertiser intoan opt-in window, step 912. The promoter server may save either the userinformation as received from the web server or the updated userinformation, step 914. Finally, the promoter server displays the opt-inwindow to the user, step 916, and sends the user information to theadvertiser. The promoter server sends the updated user information tothe advertiser if the information retrieved from the previous records isneeded for the advertiser to communicate with the user.

If the user information received from the web server is incomplete andthe user is not a repeat user, the promoter server may process the userinformation normally by comparing the available information withadvertiser criteria. If the missing user information is not one ofcriteria data from the advertiser, the promoter server may display anopt-in window to the user if the user information as provided satisfiesthe advertiser criteria.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a promoter server process with a privacyfeature. When privacy is of concern, a web server may not want torelease a user's personal information when it is possible that the usermay not meet an advertiser's criteria. In this situation, the web serverpasses only a target information that is necessary for the advertisercriteria comparison purpose. The target information is information usedby advertisers to select their target groups and may include sex, age,ZIP code, area code, etc. The promoter server receives the targetinformation from the web server, step and checks the target informationagainst the advertiser criteria, step If the target information matchesthe advertiser criteria, step the promoter server then request user'spersonal information, step After receiving the personal information fromthe web server, step the promoter server selects products for the opt-inwindow, step and displays the opt-in window, step The steps 1024 aresimilar to those described for steps 616-622 in FIG. 6. If the targetinformation does not match the advertiser criteria, then there is noneed to receive the rest of user information. In an alternativeembodiment, the promoter server may request user's personal informationif the user has opted in to receive additional information from theadvertiser. If the user has seen the opt-in window but has not opted toreceive additional information from the advertiser, then there is noneed to request additional user information from the web server.

In an alternative embodiment, certain missing information may bereplaced with statistical census data. For example, if the informationreceived from the web server does not include family income and thefamily income is part of advertiser criteria, the promoter server mayuse user's ZIP code to retrieve the average income of people living inthe area where the user resides and assigns this average income to userfor the purpose of checking whether the user qualifies for theadvertiser criteria. For example, if the user did not input his familyincome and the average income in the neighborhood where he lives is$100,000.00 according to the data from the Census Bureau, the promotermay use $100,000.00 as his income when comparing his information againstthe advertiser criteria. Similar assignment of statistical data can bedone for age, sex, number of children, marital status, ethnicbackground, etc. The promoter server may provide these statistical datato the advertiser indicating that these are assigned data instead ofactual data.

The promoter server bills each advertiser according to a flexiblepricing algorithm.

The following is one example of a flexible pricing algorithm. Thevariables and constants can be added, deleted, or changed according tobusiness needs.

X=(Yn based on existing, valid criteria required andpassed)−((Z−A)×(Y×100))−((C−B)×((Y×100)×1.25))−((D−E)×((Y×100)×1.25))−((F−G)×((Y×100)×1.25))+(H+I+J)

Where:

-   -   X is the final bounty assigned to an offer charged to an        advertiser, on a specific page, to a specific consumer coming        through, with the specific valid information being passed; X may        not be greater than Y;    -   is the maximum bounty set by the advertiser for a specific set        of criteria. E.g., demographic, geographic and data-graphic        (fields of data passed). There may be more than one Y set for        each offer (e.g. Y1, Y2, Yn). For instance Y1=$0.50 for first        name, last name, e-mail, ZIP code, female.    -   Y2=$0.30 e-mail, female. Y3=$0.20 e-mail. Etc.;    -   Z is the average unique opt-in rate on the page for the past 5        days. Unique opt-in rate is the number of people that opt-in to        at least 1 offer. (e.g 0.22 or 22%);    -   A is the average unique opt-in rate on the entire network for        the past 5 days. Unique opt-in rate is the number of people that        opt-in to at least 1 offer. (e.g 0.20 or 20%);    -   C is the average opt-in rate of similar offers on the page for        the past 5 days;    -   B is the average opt-in rate of similar offers on the entire        network for the past 5 days;    -   E is the average confirmation e-mail open rate of all offers on        the page over the last 5 days;    -   D is the average confirmation e-mail open rate of all offers on        the network over the last 5 days;    -   F is the average confirmation e-mail open rate of all offers on        the network over the last 15 days where the data passed in, data        left after validation and data collected are the same. (e.g.        First, Last & E-mail were passed, Email was good but First and        Last Names were not good and E-mail was collected.);    -   G is the average confirmation e-mail open rate of all offers on        the page over the last 15 days where the data passed in, data        left after validation and data collected are the same;    -   H is a 0 or negative based on the placement of page (Static);    -   I is a 0 or negative based on the layout of offers (Static);    -   J is a 0 or negative based on the type of website (Static).

A flexible pricing algorithm, such as above, allows an advertiser tospecify the price he is willing to pay for each piece of information andthe actual price paid depends on the type of information provided by awebsite. For example, the advertiser may be willing to pay a maximumbounty (Y) of 10 cents for a valid e-mail address, 20 cents for a valide-mail address plus a corresponding physical address, or 30 cents for avalid e-mail address plus a physical address and a telephone number. Theactual, final bounty (X) paid by the advertiser will not be greater thanthe maximum bounty (Y). The actual final bounty (X) is calculated byadjusting the maximum bounty (Y) according to various performancefactors unique to the website where the user data is collected. Theadvertiser may pay more for data collected from a high traffic websiteor a website that consistently visitors who provide verifiable data.Conversely, the advertiser may pay less for data collected from a “lowtraffic” website.

The factors that affect the pricing algorithm are adjusted dynamicallybased on a website's performance. For example, an increase in the opt-inrate, which will be explained in more detail later on, in last 5 dayswould improve the website's performance, and may result in an increasein the bounty paid by an advertiser. An increase in confirmation e-mailopen rate would also improve the website's performance and affectpositively on the bounty paid by the advertiser.

The flexible pricing algorithm allows dynamic calculation of a bountyfor each ad shown to each user. The algorithm is adjusted according tohistorical data that may be adjusted frequently. The historical datainclude, but are not limited to, the opt-in rate on the network, theopt-in rate of similar offers, the confirmation e-mail open rate on thenetwork, the confirmation e-mail opent rate of similar offers, etc. Theopt-in rate is a rate of users “clicking” or “checking” at least oneoffer in an opt-in window. The confirmation e-mail open rate is a rateof users opening the confirmation e-mails. A network rate refers to therate calculated based on all the websites controlled by a promoter.

The pricing algorithm is flexible because it depends and reflects on thequality of data collected. The quality of data depends on many factorsand can be enhanced by certain approaches. For example, if aconfirmation e-mail that was sent to an opt-in user bounced, the e-mailaddress would not be collected. Similarly, if a user immediatelyunsubscribes to any future e-mails upon receiving the confirmatione-mail, this user's e-mail would not be collected either. On the otherhand, if a confirmation e-mail is opened by the user, then the user'se-mail would have a high value because it belongs to an active user. Theopening of a confirmation e-mail can be detected either by a returnreceipt attached to the e-mail or a notice from a website when thee-mail is in a hyper-text markup language (HTML) format.

The quality of the data collected also depends on the quality ofinformation on the website visited by users. A web server thatconsistently provides visitors with useful information or attractiveoffers is likely to collect good data from its visitors and should berewarded accordingly. One way to reward a web server adequately is topay it based the data collected or the percentage of opt-in generated.Thus, a web sever will be paid more if it manages to get more opt-insfrom its visitors.

The following describes an exemplary scenario of the invention. An adpromoter solicits ad business from several advertisers by allowingadvertisers to target their ads to a specific demographical group. Forexample, an advertiser may be interested only in women between 35 and 45years of age, married with children. The advertiser will pay $0.50 foreach telephone number for users meeting this criteria. The ad promoterthen contracts with several web servers who host websites most likely tobe visited by this specific group of users.

When a user with these qualifications visits a website for a woman'smagazine, for example, she will see an invitation to join the magazine'se-mail list for receiving free coupons. She registers with themagazine's website and provides her personal data, such as age, e-mailaddress, telephone number, home address, marital status, number ofchildren, etc. The web server for the woman's magazine forwards a copyof this data to a promoter server for validation.

The promoter server checks the user's personal information. For example,the telephone number may be checked through a reverse white page serviceprovided by a third party. If the telephone number is valid, the reversewhite page service returns the telephone number with an address, whichwill be checked against the home address. If they match, the promoterknows that the telephone number and the home address are good.

After checking the personal information, the promoter server comparesthe information with criteria from the advertiser. If a user is a womanwho is 40 years old, married with 2 children, then she matches theadvertiser's criteria. The promoter server will then assemble an opt-inwindow with the advertiser's special promotion and display the opt-inwindow to the user.

If the user is interested in the special promotion and wants to learnmore about the product, she checks the opt-in box and submits herrequest. The promoter server sees that the user has opted in to receiveadditional information and then sends a confirmation e-mail to the useron behalf of the advertiser thanking her for the request. The promoterserver will also collect the user's telephone number and send it to theadvertiser.

The promoter calculates a fee that will be charged to the advertiser forthe service of displaying the promotion and providing a good telephonenumber. The promoter also pays the web server for the woman's personalinformation.

FIG. 10 depicts a publisher page 1003, which includes a reference orreferences 1005 to a script (e.g., JavaScript) located at a promoterserver 1006. The publisher page 1003 can include data 1007 that thepublisher can provide from its records. Such data 1007 would be relatedto a profile of a user that is browsing the page from a user device1033, and can use a browser 1004 for that purpose. Browser 1004 is shownas having a rendered publisher page 1019, comprising markup from page1003. Browser 1004 also would execute the reference script(s) in ascript execution environment 1021. Examples of scripts from promoterserver 1031 include a script implementing an offer presentation process1009, a script implementing an opt-in collection process, and a scriptused in implementing an adaptive offer selection and serving process1013. Not all such scripts would necessarily be running at any giventime on device 1033, and not all scripts may be available in allimplementations, as described in further detail below.

FIG. 11 depicts example components of a system 1050 for presentingopt-in offers on a page being browsed on a user device (as in FIG. 10).JavaScript 1051 is an example of a script executing on client device,and which was referenced by the publisher page being viewed by the user.JavaScript 1051 obtains information from one or more of the publisherpage content and the user, such as during an account setup process. Suchinformation can include demographic information. JavaScript 1051generates a request which includes at least some portion of the obtainedinformation. A parameter extractor function 1054 parses the request. Aformatter 1056 can canonicalize or otherwise put the parsed informationinto a desired format. An offer filter 1058 uses the information fromthe request to determine offers that are not ruled out by theinformation known about the user and can output a list of potentialoffers to be presented. Then, an HTML filter can filter this list basedon information from DB cache 1066, which can include information aboutoffers that have been accepted by the user (further descriptionconcerning how the user can be identified is provided below). An HTMLgenerator 1061 can then receive the offer information that remains andcreate a markup page representative of those offers and return it fordisplay within the publisher page, such as a frame or other windowportion made available for that purpose. Information about the offersmade available for this particular opportunity (e.g., information aboutthe user, the publisher site, date and time information). These writescan be queued for asynchronous writing to the DB 1064. This informationalso can be stored in DB cache 1066 and persistent storage 1072.Persistent storage is in an example, a second tier of storage betweendynamic cache 1066 and database 1064. This example takes the database1064 out of the real time transaction loop. but also provides a durabletransaction mechanism.

FIG. 12 depicts an example of an opt-in processing system. Some of thecomponents are similar to that of FIG. 11, and need not be describedagain. A JavaScript 1085 submits a request 1086 that includesinformation obtained from a user filling out a form requesting specifiedinformation, such as personally identifying information and demographicinformation (note: as will be described below, personally identifiableinformation can be treated using a privacy conscious technique, but isreferred to generically here). Opt-in filtering and comparisons 1088 canbe used to check the data submitted, potentially perform corrections orformatting, and output data to be used in profile maintenance 1089. Suchmaintenance 1089 can include updating records that track which offershave been accepted by a given user (see FIGS. 15 and 16). Post opt-inprocesses 1090 can be performed, examples of which include e-mailverification/confirmation 1092, and data transfer 1093 functionality.verification and confirmation also can involve checking databases tocomplete or validate information that was submitted. Outputs of suchconfirmation, completion and validation can be stored in DB storage 1072and/or database 1064. Data transfer 1093 operates to transfer datagathered for a particular offer to the advertiser that commissioned theoffer.

A more particular example of functionality according to certain aspectsis found in FIG. 13. FIG. 13 depicts that an advertiser (the termadvertiser is used in that it is a familiar term; however, because inmany aspects, this system deals with opt-in offers, rather thanadvertisements, paying customers or subscribers of the system may alsobe advertisers, in that they pay for advertisements to be displayed inInternet settings. However, customers of implementations of thedisclosed opt-in advertising systems need not be advertisers). Anadvertiser provides required parameters for serving an offer 1103, andspecified information to be gathered from a qualified user that acceptsthe offer 1105. Privacy policy and data use information also can beprovided. A candidate user is accessing 1100 content from a publisher.The publisher has referenced a script provided by promoter that isdownloaded to the device from which the user is accessing the publishercontent. The publisher, when generating the content being viewed canstore portions of information about the user within the page content.This information is accessed by the script. In one example, theinformation includes an e-mail address of the user, which was providedby the user to the publisher. The script executing on the client devicehashes 1111 at least a portion of the e-mail address (e.g., the usernameportion of the e-mail address, but not the domain). The hash ispreferably a one-way hash, such that the original information isdifficult to recover. The hash preferably also has the property thatcollisions are infrequent. A strength of hash can be selected based onthe size of the system (e.g., if tens of millions of e-mail addressesmay be stored, then a stronger hash may be used that is less likely tohave a collision. This hashed e-mail address is sent 1113 to thepromoter. The promoter compares the hashed e-mail address with recordsthat contain previous interaction information between the userassociated with that hashed e-mail address, and opt-in offers. Examplesof such databases are shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16, below. An e-mailaddress is one example of personally identifiable information that canbe used as a key to check databases of interaction history. However,other personally identifiable information can be hashed and used inaddition or substitution.

The script also can send 1025 demographic information obtained frompublisher, or as entered by the user. The demographic information isused to match opt-in offers 1121. A list of offers that match, and whichhave other properties, as desired, such as having not been previouslyaccepted, or which have not been previously presented, for example, areassembled. The offer(s) assembled are presented 1123. If there is nomatch, then the method can terminate. However, a default offer or offersalso can be presented. The user device displays 1127 the list of offers.The user can interact with the form that displays the offers, and canaccept one or more of the offers. Upon receiving at the client device anindication of acceptance, the JavaScript on the client device candisplay a set of fields for gathering the information specified by theadvertiser associated with that offer (see 1105). The JavaScript thatperforms this portion can be loaded with the presented offers, such thatthe promoter does not need to provide the fields upon user acceptance.The fields are used to gather the information, and the JavaScript sendsthe information to the promoter. The information can be verified 1135.Verification can include sending confirmatory e-mails, or accessingdatabases or other sources of information to verify correctness, orassign a probability that the information is complete or correct. If theverification failed, then the information may not be stored. However, insome implementations, an adaptive pricing model may be used toappropriately price the information and delivery the information anyway(as described below).

Thus, in this example, the promoter can be prevented from directlyreceiving useable personally identifiable information for the userbefore the user opts into an offer. However, the promoter can still culloffers that already have been accepted and/or presented too many timesto the user, by virtue of using the hashed personally identifiableinformation. In some implementations, the JavaScript can also containcontact information (e.g., a server address to post information), andthe JavaScript can directly send information from the client device tothe advertiser's server, such that the information never is provided tothe promoter. These techniques can be used simultaneously, in that someinformation can be sent directly to the advertiser and some informationcan be sent to the promoter.

FIG. 14 depicts an example of a further technique that can make use ofstored opt-in offer information that is associated with hashedpersonally identifiable information. As described previously, data canbe collected from the user, here stored data 1160, and data can bereceived from the publisher (here, stored data 1162). These data can beused in a comparison 1162 with necessary parameters to be met for eachpotential offer (parameters 1166). If data is not available for allnecessary parameters, then a hashed e-mail (or other hashed PII) can beused to determine whether any records in the system match this hashedPII. If there is a matching record, then the record is inspected todetermine whether it contains any information that satisfies a requiredparameter of an offer, but where that data was not provided by thepromoter or the user. In some cases, this data can be owned by anadvertiser/client of the system. Therefore, the advertiser whichprovided data that was necessarily to qualify a given user for an offercan be flagged 1170, and a compensation model can be provided 1168,where the compensation model pays the advertiser for the use of theirdata. This cycle can repeat any number of times. Ultimately, if data isavailable for all necessary parameters (1176), and if all parameters aresatisfied 91178), then the offer or offers are presented (1180).Responsive to offer acceptance (1182), an offer acceptance routine 1184can be initiated. Otherwise, the method can terminate 1186.

FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 depict that hashed e-mails (or other one-wayencrypted PII) can be used as keys to records that contain offerpresentation information. Offer presentation information describesoffers that were presented in association with each hashed PII. Forexample, an indication of offer acceptance 1211 is recorded for offeridentifier 1209, with respect to hashed e-mail 1205. An impressionscount 1207 can be associated with another offer identifier. Theimpressions count can be used to determine whether a maximum number ofpresentations of the offer has been reached. FIG. 16 depicts that for agiven advertiser (e.g., advertiser 1215), data elements can be stored,e.g., data elements categories 1217 and 1219. Values 1213 and 1221 canbe stored for such data elements, by example. It would be apparent toone of ordinary skill that a wide variety of organizations of suchdatabases can be provided to meet the disclosures herein, and no impliedlimitation as to database structure is to be taken by the examplepresented.

FIG. 17 depicts an example flow in which a user can be qualified to havethe opportunity to opt-into a given offer or offers, but where a serverthat determines qualification does not directly receive any personallyidentifiable information for such user. In this case, demographicinformation can be accessed (1235) by a client-side script and providedto the server 1237, the server compares the demographic information withparameters for available offers (and can filter, as described above).The offers can be indicated to the client-side script (if they wereloaded previously) or transmitted in a markup page to the client (1239).The offer information is displayed 91241), and if they user opts-in toany offer, input is collected from the user (1243, 1245). PII can beuploaded to a location provided by the advertiser directly, withoutbeing touched or handled by a server maintained by the entity thatqualified the user to receive the opt-in opportunity. Even as such PIIgoes to the advertiser directly, other information such as hashed PIIand demographic information can be sent to the server that performed thequalification (or an affiliated server).

FIG. 18 depicts an example of a situation where offers can be selectedfor display responsive to real-time interaction between a user and aform on the user's device. An example of such a form includes a form tosignup for a publisher service or otherwise register at a publishersite. In an example, such form includes a number of fields that requestdifferent demographic information, such as address, zip code, phonenumber, age, gender, interests, age, date of birth, and so on. Eachcandidate offer that can be presented to this user can have necessaryparameters loaded in the JavaScript executing on the client browser.More generally, each offer can have a be associated with a specifiedtrigger event, which can be for example, completion of a specified setof fields, focusing on a certain field, blurring after completing agiven field or fields, and so on.

Responsive to a triggering event, the JavaScript can compare theinformation entered with necessary parameters for each candidate offer,and select an offer or offer to display to the user. The display of theoffer can be delayed until the form is completed. The JavaScript alsocan submit the information provided at the point of the triggering eventto the server, which can perform the comparison, and potentially accessother information to be used in qualification of the user to be given aspecific opt-in opportunity. In one implementations, the JavaScript canrequest information about the offer from the server while the usercompletes the form, such that the data is ready in the background. Forexample, high resolution graphics or logos can be downloaded in thebackground while the user completes the form itself However, suchgraphics do not need to be downloaded for all candidate offers, but onlyfor those deemed available to be accepted. In some situations, theJavaScript can make request information for offers with parameters thatare mostly satisfied, but not yet entirely (e.g., there has been nodisqualifying event, but there remains an additional parameter to verifybefore qualification can be determined).

Returning to the example of FIG. 18, the JavaScript monitors 1261 thecompletion of the form, and generates a targeting call after a triggerevent. The targeting call is used to cause the server to compareinformation submitted in the target call with required parameters of theoffer. The call can be received and processed to identify other offersto display (1269). These can be provided to the client (or can bepre-loaded on client), and identified to the client (e.g., identifiersthat are parsed by the JavaScript can be provided). For example offeridentifiers (1273) or offer(s) 1275 can be returned. In all of theexamples herein, when a name such as offer or offer identifier isdescribed, it is understood that the underlying data descriptive of theobject is being transmitted. Offer selection (for presentation) andpresentation 1271 can be performed. These offers can be displayed in aportion of a window while the user is filling the form or can bedisplayed after some other triggering event). As discussed above, offerpresentation tracking can be conducted 1279. Here, such presentationtracking can occur in real time. For any given form filling interaction,or other interaction of a user on a page, a number of interactions ortriggering events can be caused, such that an evolutionary process ofoffer qualification can be performed.

FIG. 19 depicts further aspects of such a real-time scripting approach,in which the script can perform data validation 1260 (e.g., on dataentered into fields 1274 and 1276), determine whether the mandatoryfields or other events constituting a triggering event are satisfied(can be accessed from stored data 1268 or trigger event storage 1270).Fields that are optional but being gathered also can be specified 1272.

FIG. 20 depicts a situation where a persistent cache stores a variety ofinformation that is expected to be available in near real-time 1303.Generators 1305 create identifiers 1309 and can reference placementcodes that correlate offers with particular advertiser engagements 1307.A dynamic cache is updated upon every interaction between client sidescripts and the server 1311. Each impression 1313 generates a write 1315to the cache 1311. Each opt-in event 1317 generates a write 1315 to thecache. The DB 1319 can be polled for updates by persistent cache 1303.DB 1319 is caught up with cache 1311 and 1303 by asynchronous writequeue 1321.

FIG. 21 depicts a method for pricing information that was gatheredduring opt-in processing, but which may not be entirely correct orvalidated. The depicted method comprises accessing 1340 stored opt-ininformation and querying 1340 databases (e.g., third party or internal)to validate address, telephone number or portions thereof. Validationinformation is received that indicates a degree of validation (1346) ora probability that the information is valid (13448). These gradiationsof validity are factored into the charge for providing the informationto the commissioning advertiser. Such information is transmitted 1350and the advertiser is billed 1352. For example, if a zip code of anaddress is deemed likely correct, while a street address is not correct,then the value of the address to the advertiser is reduced, but notzero. Therefore, an appropriate discount is applied.

FIG. 22 depicts a method in which filtering and selection of offers tobe submitted can be performed. Stored data 1368 is accessed 1360. Basedon user interactions and other information available about a user (seeabove), filtering 1362 based on a variety of characteristics can beformed. Then, an optimization can be performed on the remaining offers(1364). Markup is generated (1366) for the optimized offers and providedfor presentation on the client device.

JavaScript is used as an example of client-side scripting technology,and not by way of limitation of approaches to implementing client-sidescripting and asynchronous interaction between a client device and aserver, or a division of processing between client side and server sidedevices.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail maybemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention as set for the in the following claims.

1. Tangible computer readable media storing data for configuring amachine to perform a method for obtaining opt-in contact informationfrom users accessing content from content servers, the methodcomprising: communicating, over a network, by a promoter server with aweb server belonging to a web host that is operable to serve a web pageto a user device, the web page for display on a display of the userdevice, and comprising an interface providing an opportunity for a userto register with the web host by entering information in a plurality ofdata fields in a form provided by the web host to the user device fordisplay; receiving at least some of the information entered by the userin the form; accessing a database, stored on a tangible computerreadable medium coupled with the promoter server, the databasecomprising descriptions of offers from a plurality of advertisers, eachoffer comprising a set of criteria to be matched with received userinformation, in order for that offer to be presentable to that user asan opt-in opportunity to the user corresponding to the received userinformation; comparing the user data from the web server with therespective criteria for the offers to identify matching offers;identifying and excluding from presentation any matching offer that hasalready been accepted by the user, using data stored in a tangiblecomputer readable medium correlating user-identifying data elements withoffers that were accepted by that user; providing an opt-in window fordisplay on the display of the user device, responsive to a match betweenthe user data and respective criteria of one or more of the offers, theopt-in window presenting each offer that matches and which has not yetbeen accepted by the user, with a corresponding interface element, bywhich the user can provide input to indicate a desire to opt-into thatoffer; and providing information about the user to each advertiser whoseoffer was accepted by the user.
 2. The tangible computer readable mediaof claim 1, wherein the method further comprises for each offer selectedby the user, sending a confirmation e-mail addressed to an e-mailaddress of the user, the e-mail sent on behalf of an advertiser whoseoffer was accepted by the user, and verifying the validity of the e-mailaddress.
 3. The tangible computer readable media of claim 2, wherein theproviding information about the user to each advertiser is conditionedon verification of the validity of the e-mail address.
 4. The tangiblecomputer readable media of claim 1, wherein the data stored in atangible computer readable medium correlating user-identifying dataelements with offers that were accepted by that user comprises a list ofusers whose information has been sent to the advertisers, and a list ofpromotions that have been shown to each user.
 5. The tangible computerreadable media of claim 1, wherein the data stored in a tangiblecomputer readable medium correlating user-identifying data elements withoffers that were accepted by that user comprises elements of personalinformation for each user of a list of users, and an identification of apromotion, attributable to a particular advertiser that was a source ofthat element of personal information for that user.
 6. The tangiblecomputer readable media of claim 5, wherein the method further comprisesproviding one or more elements of information about a user in the listof users, to an advertiser responsible for an offer that the user optedin to accept, but for which the user did not provide those one or moreelements of information, wherein the provided one or more elements weresourced from a promotion by a different advertiser than the advertiserresponsible for the offer that the user opted in to accept.
 7. A machineimplemented method of electronic opt-in contact information collection,comprising: receiving indications from web servers of opportunities toserve offers on devices to which the web servers have respectivelyserved web pages for display on respective displays of the devices, eachindication comprising an element of information about a respective userof the device that has been served the web page from that web server;using each of the elements of user information to determine respectivesets of opt-in offers to be presented on each device for display to theuser of that device; receiving opt-in results, indicative of which offeror offers each user has decided to accept; responsively serving arequest to each user, requesting information related to each offeraccepted by that user, the requested information specified by respectiveadvertisers responsible for the offers; receiving a response to therequest; determining whether the response contains all of the requestedinformation; and for any part of information requested, but notprovided, determining whether that information is stored in a tangiblemachine readable medium in association with identifying informationabout the user, the stored information originating from previousinteractions with the user, and if all the information requested can beprovided, either from the user response, or by retrieval from thetangible machine readable medium, providing those items of informationto the advertiser responsible for the accepted offer as a completedopt-in for that advertiser off.
 8. The machine implemented method ofelectronic opt-in contact information collection of claim 7, furthercomprising using e-mail addresses as indexes into the information storedon the tangible machine readable medium, in order to identify whichoffers were previously accepted by a user associated with each e-mailaddress.
 9. A machine-implemented method of collecting opt-in contactinformation on behalf of advertisers, comprising: interacting, by apromoter server, with web servers hosting published web content, theinteraction between the promoter server and each of the web serverscomprising receiving demographic information relating to a user that isaccessing published web content from each of the web servers; during arespective time when each user is accessing the content, determiningwhether the received demographic information for that user matchesrequired user characteristics for offers available to be presented,which have been provided to the promoter server by third-party entities;responsive to determining that a particular offer matches the requireduser characteristics for that offer, determining whether that particularoffer has already been accepted by that user, by searching foridentifying information for that user in a database tracking whichoffers have been accepted by which users wherein the offers tracked inthe database may have been presented and accepted on any of the Webservers with which the promoter server is capable of interacting;responsive to determining that the particular offer has not already beenaccepted by that user, presenting, through the Web server on which thatuser is accessing content, an indication of the availability of thatparticular offer for acceptance by that user; responsive to receiving anindication of acceptance of that particular offer by that user,presenting a form to gather information from that user, the formpresented through the web server on which the user is accessing content,the information to be collected specified by the third-party entityresponsible for that offer; and providing the information entered bythat user into the form to the third-party entity responsible for thatoffer.